Kennebec

The rain stopped by morning but it was still overcast. We went the few miles to the Kennebec River just in time for the ferry service to start. The official AT route is in the canoe because the river is too dangerous to ford. It’s six feet deep when it’s at its lowest level but it can unpredictably rise two to four feet very quickly because of an upstream dam. The ferryman has you sign a waiver even to go across in the canoe.

We went over one mountain today, Pleasant Pond Mountain. It started raining lightly just as I got to the top, and it continued most of the way down. The terrain wasn’t too bad, but with everything wet, I was a little slower moving. Wet roots and wet rocks are bad enough but add wet leaves and pine needles on top and it’s super slick.

There was another ford at Moxie Pond that was rock hoppable, and then it was just a short distance to the Bald Mountain Brook Lean-To. We grabbed our packs from Papa Bear at a road just past the shelter, and went back to setup inside. It started raining again shortly after. 18.1 miles today.